


The Sun Gutters

by voleuse



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-11
Updated: 2005-11-11
Packaged: 2017-10-04 07:37:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>They refuse to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sun Gutters

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Becoming, Part Two." Title and summary adapted from Anne Sexton's _The Truth the Dead Know_.

The night Cathy was born was the night their mother began her slow road to death.

He huddled in the corner, wrapped his arms around his knees, and tried not to hear her screaming.

His father, of course, wasn't home. Wouldn't be home for hours, though he knew very well his wife's condition.

It was one of the maids, finally, who tugged him out of his corner, and brought him into his mother's room.

The drapes on the windows were dark, they swallowed the light from the candles.

From the bed his mother smiled. "Liam, come here." Her voice was shaky.

He stepped forward, craned his neck to see the bundle set in his mother's arms. "Is it--"

"Your sister," she said. "Your baby sister. Would you like to hold her?"

He shook his head, but reached out. Placed his hand next to his mother's, on the baby's arm.

*

 

Their mother was never very strong, after that, and kept to her room for the most part.

Cathy took to following him around, dogging his steps like a shadow.

She was a pest most of the time, but he never quite minded.

She had their mother's smile.

*

 

Years later, he died.

When he woke again, he took his time before returning home.

There were friends to haunt, places he wanted Darla to see.

When she asked to meet his family, however, he couldn't refuse.

Bold and brash, mouth tacky with blood, he strolled to his former household and knocked on the door.

It creaked open, and the maid who answered it paled. Screamed.

And then Cathy appeared in the doorway.

"Liam?" she said, and her voice was tremulous and sweet. "I thought you died."

He grinned at her and shrugged. "I came back."

She examined him, then turned her gaze to Darla at his side.

"Are you an angel?" she asked.

"I am." He crouched to look her in the eye. "Your very own angel."

Cathy smiled wide, and stepped back from the doorway.

"Then you should come inside."

*

 

"Hello? Angel?"

He looks up from his book, and Dawn is standing in the doorway.

"God. Live in the present, won't you?" She rolls her eyes. "I thought you had, like, super-hearing or something."

Buffy smacks her on the shoulder. "Scram."

Dawn raises her eyebrows, sticks out her tongue, but disappears into another room.

"Sorry." Buffy skips over, plucks the book out of his hand and settles beside him. "I had to pick her up from school."

He slides his arm around her shoulders as she leans against him, and strokes back a stray lock of hair from her neck.

Buffy hums and tips her head back. Kisses him just below his ear.

"It's such a pain to have a little sister," Buffy complains.

He doesn't answer, and kisses her instead.


End file.
